Carlos Sainz is readying for a “tight battle” between Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull after practice at the British Grand Prix.
The Spaniard set the pace in the second session at Silverstone with just two-tenths covering him, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in the top four.
Assessing his Friday, Sainz said: “We didn’t run much in FP1 today, but we did a few laps in wet conditions to have some data should there be a wet qualifying tomorrow.
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“FP2 was a bit cleaner and I could tell that our performance felt good in the car.
“I think we all knew coming into this weekend that it was going to be a tight battle,” he said.
“Today on the soft tyre we were certainly pretty competitive so there’s no reason why not to think that tomorrow we can do a good job.”
Silverstone has been one of Ferrari’s strongest circuits in recent years and a victory this weekend is certainly needed with Red Bull currently on a six-race winning streak.
F1-75 ❤️#essereFerrari ? #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/BqFjSZjgvA
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 1, 2022
Asked if the Scuderia expects to fight for the win on Sunday, Sainz added…
“I think we are expecting to be competitive at every circuit this year, it will be a matter of putting everything together,” he stated.
“The car is certainly a very competitive car, as is the Red Bull, as is the Mercedes when there are less bumps and there’s a bit more high-speed.”
As for teammate Charles Leclerc, he struggled in Practice 2, finishing almost half a second behind Sainz in fifth.
“A tricky day,” the Monegasque conceded. “The first session we didn’t get much data from it because of the weather and very few laps.
“In FP2, we had quite a few problems on my side. The car didn’t feel as good on the soft as on the medium and again, we’ve had those small issues that weren’t easy also to manage.”
Pressed on what the issues were, Leclerc revealed: “I don’t know if there were radio messages on the coverage but overall, just some power unit things that were making it very difficult to drive.
“It’s fine. I mean it’s small set-ups more than problems, so we will modify it for tomorrow,” he insisted.
“Hopefully tomorrow we can have a bit of a cleaner day and have things going our way.
“I think the performance is in the car so this is positive, and hopefully again tomorrow we can put everything together and have a good day.”